Final days in Manila & Quezon City

The last 5 days was spent with family in Quezon City & Manila. We visited family & friends, and was taken sightseeing and shopping all over the place. We ate, drank, shopped, and sweated through many shirts.

We checked out Binondo, which is Manila's old Chinatown, as well as Intramuros, the old "walled city" of Manila during the Spanish era. Did some shopping at Greenhills, the Galleria, and Mall of Asia. Ate "balut" and "taho", crickets at Fely J's, and drank "lambanog" palm liquor. Endured death metal during Goth Night at Magnet night club on Halloween.

Pictures of this part of our trip can be found here: Manila

I have to give my family (especially my mom!) a HUGE thank you for making this amazing trip possible! It was so very cool to show Russell the country/city/house where I was sprouted, and my family made it all possible!

4 days in Bohol

On Oct 24, the day after returning from Boracay, we jetted off to Bohol with my parents. We stayed at the gorgeous Amarela Resort, which was originally built by the Nunag family as their vacation home until they decided to "share" it with the public as an exclusive resort. My parents know the Nunag family, and the staff (especially Ida, who was the family's long-time nanny and now oversees the hotel in their absence) were just amazingly gracious.

In Bohol, we saw tarsiers, caught a cockfight ("sabong"), and tried some "tuba" palm toddy wine. Here are the pictures of our trip to Bohol

And here's the video link to Bohol Trip Part 1 (Part 2 to follow)

4 days in Boracay

Early morning on Monday Oct 20, we took off for Boracay Island, where we spent the next 4 glorious days doing nothing but float in the water as much as possible.

We stayed at the Pearl of the Pacific hotel, down at the quiet end of White Beach.

To see more of all of the nothing that we did, click here to see our Pictures of Boracay

Russell put this together to make y'all jealous: Link to Video

Our arrival in the Philippines

We visited the Philippines and arrived on Saturday October 18. The very next day, a family party was held at my paternal Grandma's house. As to be expected, there was a TON of food and relatives, many of whose names have totally escaped us (I can only imagine how overwhelming it was for Russell!). My mom got a caterer who made Puto Bungbong & Bibinka cake the traditional way - steamed & baked over charcoal clay-ovens. And we had a lechon!

It was such a great experience showing Russell around the place. The house I lived in as a child is actually on the same property, adjoining my grandparent's house. My grandma, "Mama Lin", still has all the same old-school stereo equipment, furniture, and decor from the 50s/60s (how delightfully retro!).

Pictures are posted here: Arrival in Quezon City

Crawdaddy-a-go-go!

Back in mid-July 2008, Russell & I held a crawfish boil in our backyard. The weather actually cooperated with us and it felt like summer in the Sunset District (what a rarity!). We shipped in 40 pounds of crawfish from Louisiana, and it was quite a task to "purge" and cook the dang things.
Tu & Herman made spicy fried chicken. Justa made jambalaya and cornbread. I made the collard greens. Punam & Wency made beignets for dessert. Lawdy it's good to have friends that can cook! And of course, everyone else brought BEER (can't do a proper boil without the beer!)
It was such a memorable occasion, and our friend Ryan took the most amazing photographs! You can see them on his site here: Ryan & Jen's Crawdad Pictures

Russell & Trina's wedding photos!

I don't think I ever did post these, did I? Well here they are in full-color glory!
http://trinarussell.jchanphotography.com/
password is: gong

Pictures from Monica

And click HERE to see pics from Monica!